The following is an email I received yesterday in my shiny new lamer mailbox.

In the beginning, I am sorry to write suddenly long sentences.
As victims’ representative of it, I dare to write that here.
… to inform lots of people all over the world about that …

The consumption cultures of Japan are facing a serious crisis by The PSE Standardization (Electrical Appliances And Materials Safety Law) now to
prevent the ignition accidents of consumer electronics, it is enacted.
Though RoHS looks like this, there are large problems in ruining the
Japanese economy!

Buying and selling consumer electronics with built-in power supplies
which were made before the year 2001 (3DO・PC-FX・Sega Saturn・Dream Cast・
Play Station 1000-9000・Neo-Geo CD etc. correspond in the game machines)
will be impossible by this law in April 2006! The auctions too may be
restricted!
The buying and selling of the repair goods and junks will be also
impossible!

The AC adaptors (The main bodies are off the subject) also will be
scheduled to
become impossible to buy and sell in April 2008! Besides video game
consoles,
amplifiers, synthesizers, tape-recorders, phonographs, vcrs,
cine-projectors,
and industrial machines, etc. will be abandoned in large quantities!

It is NOT AT ALL considered for the OTAKU cultures and the managers of
recycling shops!
The production lines of the factories will stop! Farmers will be impossible
to harvest their crops!
The business of Japan will be dull again and it will exert a big influence
on the world!
The environment of Japan will be greatly destroyed and we will be jeered
all over the world!
Moreover, this decision had not intentionally been notified to people until
recently!

By the way, it is recorded in the Constitution of Japan like those.

Article 13:

All of the people shall be respected as individuals.
Their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness shall,
to the extent that it does not interfere with the public welfare,
be the supreme consideration in legislation and in other governmental
affairs.

Article 29:

1)The right to own or to hold property is inviolable.
2) Property rights shall be defined by law, in conformity with the public
welfare.
3) Private property may be taken for public use upon just compensation
therefor.

It is obviously a breach of the constitution!
In order to raise the unfair advantage, METI and
certain electric companies in Japan (specially ***Y and P********)
concocted it!
They think that disposable electric products are natural!

What do you think about the above-mentioned matters ?

Where are the people who feel doubt about it ?
Where are the people who feel shock about it?
Where are the people who feel sadness about it?
Where are the people who feel anger about it?

Please do not disregard this matter. Please cooperate with us.
It is difficult to change the situation only by the public opinion of Japan
because it is irrelevant for the person who doesn’t buy and sell used
consumer
electronics. We are glad that foreigners use our industrial commodities and
enjoy
our culture. We do not want to make them disappointed. We must apologize to
the ancestors that the destruction of Japanese environment advances any
further.
Everything becomes spoiled if it will not do by in April 2006!

Please broadcast this.
Please create an opposition movement for this.
Please complain to Japanese embassies about this.
Please boycott new electrical appliances made in Japan.
And, Please copy the full texts and paste them to other pages!

Thank you for all the readers who read full texts!

Is it spam, is it serious, maybe both? I really don’t know. First, if I am to uphold any sort of internet image, I must mock the Engrish. Ha, ha ha. Consider yourself mocked, Japanese guy who was cursed to not be born to an Anglophone. Ok, now to the content of the letter.

The little research I did on the Japanese laws it refers to didn’t mention anything about game systems. The law also seems to have been intact since 2001 and I found nothing that indicated any changes of it starting in April. This led me to reread the email and visit the links at the bottom (not included here) to see if it was some sort of phishing attempt. No one seems to be looking for money, though. This guy’s stress seems real.

Accepting he knows what he is talking about, which he may not, the next problem becomes deciding where to stand on an issue I know nothing about in an economy I know little about. First, reasons I would agree with the email that this law is bad. I own Final Fantasy 6, Fire Emblem 2 and 3, and a half dozen Saturn RPG’s from Japan. My Saturn is modded, but I have always wanted a white Japanese one, and I do not own a Famicom or Super Famicom. The letter indicates that Japanese stores will not be allowed to carry these systems, so I will have a much harder time obtaining them. That’s bad.

On the other hand, the law as a whole may be beneficial to the health and safety of the Japanese people. The economic repercussions may be inconsequential, or if it forces people to buy new electronics, may be good for the economy. That’s good.

But then again he does make it sound like this law is mostly an attempt by electronics manufacturers to profit at the loss of the rest of the economy. That’s bad.

Although, he sounds a little bit like a ranting extremist, and everyone knows they make up all of their facts. That’s good?

So my problem is I am completely ignorant and nearly all the information I found about the law was in Japanese. As a gamer, I do not want to see old Japanese systems rocket in price because they become harder to find. As a global citizen, I do not want the Japanese to be forced to deal with possibly hazardous electronics because I want a Super Famicom. As an American, fuck being a global citizen, fuck Japan and all of their Commie bullshit, and fuck gaming, I am going to go play football.